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Black Diamond LiveWire Quickdraw

Finally, a quickdraw built for actual, real-world sport climbing! The Black Diamond LiveWire is a snazzy green quickdraw that has quickly become my favorite way to connect rope to rock.

The LiveWire is equipped with a beefy, wide nylon dogbone (sling) that fits right into my hand, and is easy to grab. This was my favorite feature, as it made my favorite part of sport climbing, grabbing draws, easier. On one particularly desperate route, I actually lunged to a pre-hanging LiveWire, grabbed the juggy dogbone, and stuck the move with both feet cutting (note: this is not approved beta). A thick and rugged dogbone is a welcome change from the ultra-light 10 and 12 mm Spectra dogbones, which may have a place on trad or alpine racks, but definitely do not hold up to the rigors of sport wanking. The LiveWire's dogbone is 12 cm long, and stitched together with five beefy bar tacks. Unlike Spectra, it is extremely abrasion resistant, which is great for leaving your quickdraws up on your long-term project.

Up top, the LiveWire boasts a redesigned keylock solid-gate carabiner called the Dynotron. The rope-side carabiner is an easy-clipping LiveWire wiregate. Exemplifying the signature Black Diamond attention to detail, the Dynotron has tiny grooves on the side of the gate, which add a degree of purchase between the gate and your thumb. The ridges make taking the draw off your harness and clipping it to bolt hangers easier/quicker/more reliable. Finally, these are no toy-sized carabiners, they are a breeze to clip, and I have big hands.

I've used a rack of LiveWires for over a year, and have left them up on projects. They show little wear and tear; the carabiners seem to be particularly resistant to grooving and notching as compared to some other softer carabiners I've used.

I would love to see the LiveWire come in one longer length, perhaps in the 24- to 30-cm range. Some longer bones would be a welcome addition to my rack.

Weight: 3.6 ounces.

Beefy, wide dogbone: easy to grab, resists abrasion.

Hot-forged Dynotron carabiner up top; LiveWire wiregate on rope end.

Recommended for sport climbing.

Cons:

Only comes in one dogbone length: 12 cm.

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